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Army Bread: 1863

February 1863. "Captain J.W. Forsyth, provost marshal, Aquia Creek, Virginia." An army marches on its stomach, and the stomach's boots are made of dough. Or something like that. Wet plate glass negative. View full size.

I'm a civil war (southern) Reenactor and I can honestly say that Hard Tack was EVIL. This stuff was like a cracker, baked two or three times and hard enough to crack your teeth if you weren't careful. It never spoiled, and could last decades before you needed to replace it. Seriously cheap to produce, both the South and North used it in their packs.

Veteran soldiers knew that to make the hard tack palatable, you would take the "bread" and break it over a rock before putting it in your bacon grease after cooking breakfast. Letting the tack soak up the grease and fry some would soften it up enough to make it edible.

Those jackets looked very sharp when fully buttoned, but you couldn't bend, move freely, or slouch without risking popped buttons. Undoing a few in the middle meant you could button-up quickly when needed, but still work in relative comfort. Also, it made a convenient pouch to store things.

I'm sensing a pattern here. In a previous Civil War era photo here an officer on his (lean) horse had buttons undone in the middle, but his jacket was buttoned at the top and waist. I had thought that perhaps his jacket was too tight in the middle or some buttons or buttonholes were damaged, but here it is again. Was this a military fashion trend at the time?

About 20 or so years ago, divers found a sunken Union supply ship in the Savannah River. Amongst the stuff recovered were some easily recognizable hardtack biscuits. To have survived and remain recognizable after being submerged for 135+ years means it was tough stuff made to last!

Reproduction Union Mechanical crates made of pine (photo below) are sold as hardtack boxes for use in Civil War reenactments. These show the city as Baltimore, but a New York Times account (in the "Marine Intelligence" digest of December 15, 1862) gives the address as being in New York City, where there is indeed a 45 Leonard Street.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.